Warden, captain resign from Monroe County jail

STROUDSBURG — The suspended warden and captain at the Monroe County Correctional Facility have resigned, the county Prison Board announced Wednesday afternoon.

DAVID PIERCE

STROUDSBURG — The suspended warden and captain at the Monroe County Correctional Facility have resigned, the county Prison Board announced Wednesday afternoon.

Warden David Mauro and Capt. Owen Thomas submitted resignation letters effective Feb. 27, the date they were suspended without pay pending investigation of a personnel issue at the Snydersville jail.

The suspensions came the day after Thomas allegedly uttered a disparaging remark about a corrections officer to Mauro while in the lunchroom, several people with ties to the prison say privately. According to some accounts, Thomas said of the officer: "What a waste of a uniform."

The remark was overheard by another corrections officer, some say, adding that Thomas warned that officer not to repeat what had been heard.

The prison board adjourned into private session Tuesday morning to discuss personnel issues — presumably the fates of Mauro and Thomas — for one hour and 45 minutes, before recessing their regular meeting for a day. Board members refused to say if they used the recess to issue an ultimatum that the officials resign or be fired.

Board members refused to comment on any aspect of what happened, other than to acknowledge Mauro and Thomas were suspended but have now resigned. Jim Fareri, the prison board's attorney, agreed with board members that they are legally prohibited from commenting on personnel matters.

"They resigned, and I don't think the board can comment on them," Fareri said.

Monroe County Commissioner Donna Asure, who is chairwoman of the prison board, did say that Mauro's background as a prison official in Morris County, N.J., probably wasn't the right fit for the Monroe facility. Mauro was the fourth warden here in less than two years, three of them hired following charges that seven prison employees engaged in illegal sex with inmates.

"He was only there a month as deputy warden" before being named to the top job last July "so I don't know if we saw every side of Mr. Mauro," Asure said.

Thomas, who was the third-ranking official at the prison, was hired a year ago this month after a lengthy career at the Rikers Island detention center in New York City.

"Mistakes were made," Asure said of the hiring process.

Commissioner Theresa Merli, a prison board member, agreed that future high-ranking officials should be more familiar with local Pennsylvania prison operations.

"It's different here, not just nuances, but real differences in how Pennsylvania operates," Merli said.

The correctional facility has been without a deputy warden since Mauro's promotion to warden. The prison's fourth in command, Director of Treatment Garry McFarland, has handled daily supervisory matters at the prison since the suspensions and will continue in that role.

No timetable has been set for hiring a new warden. Asure said it is too soon after the resignations to know what type of search process will be implemented.

Commissioner Suzanne McCool said the board will be wiser when seeking the next warden.

"We know what we're looking for now and know what we expect," said McCool.

Some say the Thomas remark, and Mauro's failure to address it, was merely the latest in a series of incidents that upset the prison board:

An inmate serving time for armed robbery, Thurman Stanley, walked away from a court-ordered work-release assignment last Dec. 30 and hasn't been seen since. The prison board wasn't informed of the escape, and some members only learned of it after the story appeared in the Pocono Record. Some employees have expressed concerns about the purpose, cost and difficulties in implementing a new prison video system.

The camera network, once estimated to cost $125,000, is supposed to enable surveillance of prisoners and corrections employees in all corners of the jail. One official says no one has been monitoring the cameras, ordered in the aftermath of the scandal in which five corrections officers were convicted or pleaded guilty to having illegal sex with inmates.

Much of the video equipment is about to be moved from its current location and reinstalled in a less crowded room, at additional cost to the county.

Some employees complained that Mauro wanted to spend thousands of dollars on new prison uniforms they say are unnecessary. The three Monroe County commissioners voted earlier Wednesday to reject all prison uniform bids submitted by contractors.

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